The Portland Trail Blazers played one good half of basketball against the Phoenix Suns on Saturday night, taking a four-point lead into halftime against their much more accomplished opponents. Kevin Durant had enough of that by the time the third period started, however. He led a charge that put the Suns up 20 on their way to a 103-97 victory. Portland made a huge comeback to close the game, but it wasn’t quite enough to clinch the win.
Anfernee Simons and Jerami Grant led the Blazers with 20 points apiece. Devin Booker led the Suns with 28 while Kevin Durant contributed 21.
First Quarter
The Blazers opened the game trying to decide who was going to set the offense. Anfernee Simons and Deni Avdija took turns, neither very successfully. The offense looked disjointed except for the occasional shot by Deandre Ayton inside. On the other end, Portland gave Phoenix wide-open looks from the three-point arc. Fortunately, the Suns missed most of them. This led to a whole bunch of not-scoring, which was fair enough for the underdog Blazers. If nobody is scoring, nobody’s getting blown out.
The stall continued through much of the first, broken occasionally by Scoot Henderson pushing the ball downcourt. Portland did a good job of forcing turnovers and running out, but had a hard time converting. Phoenix, meanwhile, just kept missing.
The end result was a wholly pedestrian 22-18 lead for the Suns after one. You wouldn’t want to use this as an example of NBA basketball for your skeptical friends, but it was OK for Portland.
Second Quarter
The second period opened with Kevin Durant hitting a three-pointer while being guarded, and fouled, by Donovan Clingan. Sixty-two things are wrong with that set-up, and the immediate four-point play after a period of non-scoring led to a, “Ruh-roh Raggy” from this recapper, especially when Durant followed up with another three on the next possession,
The Suns kept lofting threes after but soon started missing once again. This had little to do with Portland’s defense. The shooting was just ugly in this one. The Blazers contributed themselves with enough bricks to fill a Lego Store. Coupled with the turnovers they coughed up (instead of forcing) and the second shaped up to be a bad period for Portland.
Phoenix pushed the lead to 11 points mid-quarter, but the Blazers managed to force them into misses again. A few opportunity buckets, including 10 total points from Anfernee Simons in the second period, were enough to bring the score to 47-43, Portland at the half.
Phoenix was shooting 27.3% at intermission, the Blazers 29.8%. Wow.
Third Quarter
Third periods have been rough for Portland all season. Tonight was no exception. The Blazers opened the period lofting threes, missing most of them. Phoenix had no such trouble. They scored inside and out, erasing their halfcourt deficit right away. When the triples started falling, suddenly Phoenix’s offensive woes disappeared. They built a seven-point lead before the period was four minutes old. Kevin Durant had seven points in the first five minutes all on his own.
Phoenix kept stroking threes as the third quarter unfolded. With 2:31 remaining, they took a 21-point lead, having trailed at the half. The scored ended up at 87-65 after three.
Fourth Quarter
Dalano Banton had a big burst at the start of the fourth quarter, feasting off of drives and opponent turnovers. Portland played a little faster and freer, but realistically they were able to because the Suns knew the game was done. Except it wasn’t. Stay tuned...
The Blazers played Deandre Ayton and Donovan Clingan together briefly in the fourth. Their rebounding looked good. Phoenix didn’t push them enough on defense to give it a real trial, but it didn’t look horrible, at least.
The Blazers made a spirited run in the final minutes of the game, forcing even more turnovers, running, and watching Phoenix loft lazy shots. They managed to cut the lead to 3 with less than 2:00 left, then to 2 with a minute remaining on a Banton three. Banton had another three-point attempt on the next possession to take the lead, but it spun in and out. That would have been something. Tyus Jones hit free throws after that, pushing the lead safely back to four with 21.1 seconds remaining. Deni Avdija blew a layup in the final seconds that would have been Portland’s last gasp of hope, and that was the ballgame.
Still, a 30-8 run to close the game wasn’t a bad way to finish.
Up Next
Boxscore
Stay tuned for extended analysis of the game, coming soon.
The Blazers will face the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday night at 6:30 PM, Pacific Time.